What exactly is a wombat?

Wombats are Australian Marsupial Mammals

You may come to a point in your life when you wonder what a wombat is. I know I did. A wombat is a marsupial mammal.  Marsupials are really unique because they frequently carry their babies in a pouch.  A wombat digs burrows and their pouch actually faces backwards so they do not get dirt on their baby!


There are two types of wombats.  There is the Bare-nosed or Common wombat and this wombat has three subspecies.  



Then, there is the Hairy-nosed wombat and they have two species.

Bare-nose wombat

The three subspecies of Bare-nosed/Common wombats are the Tasmanian wombat (Vombatus ursinus tasmaniensis) please try to pronounce this, the Australian mainland Bare-nosed wombat (Vombatus ursinus hirsutus), and the Flinders Island wombat (Vombatus ursinus ursinus)


The two species of Hairy-nosed wombats are the Northern Hairy-nosed wombat (Lasiorhinus krefftii) and the Southern Hairy-nosed wombat (Lasiorhinus latifrons)


I personally think that the Bare-nosed wombat is the cutest but who am I kidding?  The hairy-nosed wombat cannot be resisted. Hairy-nosed wombats are also more social.  They live with up to twelve other hairy snouts.  


The Bare-nosed or common wombat may be cute but they are kind of loners.  They spend a lot of time alone digging and foraging.  

Meet the baby Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat (Video)

The Southern Hairy-nosed wombat has a larger skull and smaller snout than a common wombat. 


Wombats are the size of a medium to large dog.  They weigh around 40-90 pounds.


Want to know a weird fact?  Wombat poop is cubed. Yes, cubed.  Some say it is because it has little moisture content and that it is formed in their digestive tract that way.  



Cubed poop does not roll down a hill and stays put.  They use it to mark their territory.  I wonder if that also allows the plant seeds in their poop to stay put?  Anypoo... let's carry on or you can stay put if your kind of square..ba dum dum

The Diprotodon was the largest marsupial that ever walked the planet!

Did you know that there was once a giant wombat?  This wombat is called the Diprotodon.  They weighed almost 6000 pounds each.  That is a big wombat.  They were around ten feet long from their nose to the end of their stub. 

One amazing fact is that they are said to have co-existed with people.  Yes, people!  Settlers came to Australia about 50,000 years ago.  Some ate the wombat for food while others worshiped the wombat.  Pretty crazy right? 

Many of the herds in Australia died from drought and perhaps their extinction was due to climate change, hunting, and habitat issues.  

-Conclusion-

By this time, you are thrilled about Wombats and cannot wait to learn more.  You have learned the types of wombats and their sub-species.  You have learned a little about their poop and their personalities.  You even learned about the giant wombat.  

Would you like to learn more?  Comment below!

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By PanBK at the English language Wikipedia,

 CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5098883

Giant extinct wombat-Nobu Tamura/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 3.0